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Posts tagged with the category Transformative Learning

Mainstream Mindfulness

The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program developed by Jon Kabat Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School is now a global phenomenon with programs running in every continent. Mindfulness studies conducted from the school’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, and involving over 20,000...

Coming back together

These days, I find myself eager for spaces designed for emergence. I think I have graduated from the “pretend to be in control” stage and I'm now getting acquainted to the “be ready to be surprised” stage. My life’s philosophy has always been: everything is learning. But now, I have an intense awareness that every...

3 Ways to Boost Your Creativity

When the pace of things is fast and we have too much to do, we drain our inner resources --resources that are necessary for creativity. Stress is an energy hog that depletes our concentration, and it cuts us off from our best thinking. There's a whole bunch of brain science behind this.
Practices from Mindfulness & MBSR that spark...

Change, Flex and Intentionality

In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789, Benjamin Franklin stated: “our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I would add to this quote the fact that change is also certain. In a way, both death and taxes are...

Science and Spirituality in Organizational Practice

One of the wonderful things about being part of Saybrook’s community is the opportunity to connect with and continue to learn from the faculty teaching in the different schools and programs. Ever since I was enrolled as a student in the late 1990s, I have been an admirer of the profound scholarship, intellectual brilliance, and refreshing...

Reconciling Stagnation and Generativity

Consciousness is a term related to awareness. Awareness of what? Awareness of ourselves and others. Those things we can observe and those that we cannot. Those we can measure and those we intuit.
Individually, our consciousness is a product of our capacities and capabilities in relation to our life conditions, those elements that impact how we...

The Bittersweet Grace of Relinquishing: Letting Parts of You Move On

Last February, I went snowboarding for about the 18th time in 14 years. When 50, on a bit of a lark, I learned how to snow board. I was already too old to do this. The young boarders call any boarder over 50 “a gray on a tray,” and that was me.
I so loved it. The joy of swooshing down the huge, miles-long slopes in Utah or Colorado....

Reality Bites... Without Meaningfulness

Two decades ago, actress Wynona Ryder donned a graduation gown, stood at a podium and, as Lelaina Pierce in the movie Reality Bites, gave a college commencement speech that, in a few sentences, managed to probe two extremes and the ambiguous space in between.
"And they wonder why those of us in our 20s refuse to work an 80-hour week just so...

I had a powerful experience this past week. It was the launch of the Global Leadership Lab, an organization I co-founded even though it was never my plan to do so. The experience has shown me the power of pure intention and deep collaboration in the quest to accelerate systemic transformation. For the past six months, I have been part of a magical...

Embracing Hope in Uncertain Times

There is a saying, “Everything will be all right in the end. So if it is not all right now, then it is not yet the end.”
This mantra is proclaimed throughout the movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as six British retirees grapple with getting older and lives that did not turn out as they had hoped. Each find themselves at a...

"Bioneering" the New World

Imagine a different world. Imagine a world where we can solve all the problems that plague humanity. Imagine a world where we learn how to live within the limits of our planet and co-exist in harmony with all living creatures. Imagine a world with new organizations and new cultures that honor our individual gifts and soul paths, and celebrate our...

"I’m Spiritual, But Not Religious"

I’m spiritual, but not religious.
I say that quite often and it's also something I hear quite often, typically when I'm getting to know a new friend or an acquaintance and the topic turns to spirituality, meaning-making, defining a sense of purpose, or just pondering the mysteries of a vast and mysterious universe.
Whether it's...